These pages share our journey of adoption, parenting, and raising three kiddos with a wide range of special needs. We aren't brave. We aren't amazing. We just don't know if we would be able to handle a typical child.

Pages

Thursday, December 3, 2009

15 months.............

Okay a little bit of time has past since my last post about all the wonderful things about Abigail. Enough time that I think I should go on and on about her again. She is changing quickly. Not as much as in the first year, but learning new things all the time. I am often amazed at how intelligent she is.

She is officially 15 months. It's still shocks me how fast things go. I know everyone tells you this before you have kids, but seriously, it goes fast. We are still loving it and think that being parents is an amazing and wonderful thing. Abigail is a wonderful blessing in our lives that repeatedly leads us back to praying "please show us what to do because we are in need of Your guidance and direction in how to parent and what's best for Abigail."

So anyway let the story begin. As of two days ago Abigail walks all the time. She had taken steps before, but now if she falls she almost always stands back up instead of crawling. I still haven't adjusted to hearing her coming and turning to see her wobbly little body coming towards me...much slower than crawling at the moment. It also is still amazing to me because at nine months she couldn't put weight on her legs. I have not forgotten, nor will I ever forget, that God healed her. Six months later she is walking, climbing steps, dancing, clapping, and being a toddler.

She is picking up on new things at the speed of light. She has seen me blow my nose a few times so she has started trying to pull tissues out of the trash and blow her nose. I gave her a cloth diaper to use...a little more sanitary than used tissues.

She does motions to this little light of mine, He's got the whole world in His hands, I'm a little teapot, twinkle twinkle, and the itsy bitsy spider. She LOVES music. If she is awake she ask for it to be on. It is on so much that for the first time ever I enjoy the silence while she is in bed. She also enjoys playing the piano, drums (that I made), tambourine, and a few other little percussion type instruments that we have. She is musical.

Her vocabulary though is still the thing that when I think about it I am blown away. Between signs and words she is off the charts. I am going to list them all so you can be impressed too. For signs she knows: more, eat, please, all-done, thank you, no thank you, drink, water, milk, cheese, cracker, banana, apple, blueberry, sit, potty, brush teeth, stinky, help, book, music, train, airplane, up, down, shoes, socks, flower, butterfly, tree, light, baby, monkey, bird, hear, phone, hurt, hot, yuck, night-night(bed), Jesus and mama. A few of them are her own signs she uses, but she uses them consistently and we know what they mean. So the words she can say: all-done, down, mama, papa, dog, monkey, Maggie, Myla, stop, quit (those last two are courtesy of the dogs), shoes, bath, night-night, and teeth, I know impressive. My fifteen month old has nearly 50 words in her vocabulary and can put two or three together. She is so smart.

So to explain a few things from the list. The potty...she is so interested when I go. I am not trying to train her. I have a little one though so I pulled it out and said Abigail's potty and showed her the sign. She asks to sit on it. It never last long, so she is usually clothed, but it turned out to be a smart move. Yesterday we needed to get a urine sample to see if her uti had cleared up. She peed out of the first bag. I didn't want them to have to cath her. Soooo...I put the bag on her, sat her on the potty, turned on some kid songs (from the 80's) and gave her water. Within two minutes she had peed....and that meant no catheter! Hooray for Abigail liking to sit on the potty. I'm also hoping it will mean she will show interest earlier, but I'll take what I get for now.

The stop and quit are what we say to Maggie and Myla (our dogs) over and over and over for licking Abigail's face. She now emphatically tells them stop and quit as well. It's funny to hear someone that little try to use the same firm voice as an adult. It comes out sounding like a growl.

Beyond the walking and vocabulary she loves animals. She is getting pretty good with some of their noises. She can do a dog, cat, pig, sheep, horse, cow, owl, rooster, and turkey. Apparently snowmen and giraffes also make a noise similar to a cow, but we aren't sure why that is! She also does a train noise, sirens, and a cars with no mufflers. It makes living in the city with lots of noise a little more enjoyable. :) And it makes us laugh.

She is a lover. She hugs and kisses everything still. She loves her monkey and lambie. Monkey was her gift for the one year after adoption finalization day. Lambie was an Easter gift from grandma Brenda and grandpa Eric. They are her favorites. She has started calling for monkey (we taught her this) when she wants him. She yells "MON MON." It's cute. One the way home from Thanksgiving though we didn't give him to her because she gets car sick. So for about an hour off and on in the car she yelled for him. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to teach her?

She also has started insisting we kiss him when we kiss her goodnight. She makes a kiss noise and holds him up so I have to say goodnight to Abigail Tohelet Mann and Monkey Mann. I also though it would be funny to pretend to suck his thumb since Abigail sucks hers. She pretends to suck his thumb and now insist that Jason and I do as well. It's comical since she often has a foot or his tail instead of his thumb. :)

Abigail and monkey

Oh the stories I could tell going on and on. Ones that I think are way cuter than anyone else ever will. That's what parenting is though. So enjoy these and if you want more let me know. I'm certain I could think of some more great things to tell you about this little girl that we have fallen madly in love with!